School Board to Weigh Safety Procedures : Education: A hot line to brief parents on suspicious sightings on campuses is one option the Pleasant Valley panel will discuss.

As part of a broad effort to beef up campus security, Pleasant Valley school board members Thursday will consider new procedures to warn parents about suspicious characters hanging around campuses.

Additionally, the board will consider setting up a special telephone hot line that parents could call to get the latest information on suspicious sightings at district schools.

The proposal comes on the heels of a plan to install new fencing at six schools to better control public access and improve safety. The fencing would funnel visitors toward each of the school’s offices and prevent them from wandering around the campus unescorted, said Howard Hamilton, associate superintendent for administration.

The school board last month voted to allocate no more than $45,000 to install fencing at Los Primeros, Las Colinas, Los Nogales, Dos Caminos, Valle Lindo and Los Altos schools. The board is expected to award the construction bid at an upcoming meeting.

The new security procedures would give formal guidance to principals on how to handle possible threats to student safety. Such rules are believed to be the first of their kind in the county, officials said.

Hamilton said the proposal stems from increasing violence perpetrated toward school-age children across the state and nation, as well as recent incidents involving children in the Camarillo district.

“We believe it’s better to be safe than sorry,” Hamilton said. “Under this proposal, school principals would be given more guidance as to what to do should an incident or suspicious sighting occur.”

Hamilton said principals now have the discretionary authority to simply make a note of an incident, alert their staffs and district staff members, or send a written advisory to parents.

The proposed new policy is modeled more after standard police investigative procedures for any crime. Those procedures call for officers to investigate an incident, then give standards for deciding how serious the response should be.

Should police responding to a school incident decide that a crime had occurred, school principals would be directed to dispatch a written warning to parents.

Both parents and officials of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, which doubles under contract as the city’s police force, applauded the proposal Monday.

“A policy like the one they are considering would definitely head off a lot of potential problems,” Sheriff’s Cmdr. Ray Abbott said. “I think it will encourage awareness of the potential dangers that school-age children are facing. It’s a good idea and one that the department is very supportive of.”

Likewise, Dennis Migliazzo, president of the Bedford Open School Parent Teacher Assn., said the proposal was one that the board should support.

“It’s a sad reflection on the state of our society,” Migliazzo said. “But I think it is definitely a step in the right direction.”

Dolores (Val) Rains, a veteran Pleasant Valley school board member, said the proposal has a lot of merit.

“I think parents have a right to as much information about the well-being of their child as is possible, and I think the hot line is an excellent idea,” Rains said. “My only concern is the potential ‘cry-wolf’ problem that might come up, but I think we can find a way of working around that.”

FYI

The Pleasant Valley school board will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday at Camarillo City Hall, 601 Carmen Drive.